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Japan
This Week in AsiaGeopolitics

Japan and South Korea are at odds, but the US won’t get involved. Is it because of Kim Jong-un?

  • As a dispute over Korean forced labourers spirals into a burgeoning trade war between Tokyo and Seoul, Washington is reluctant to step in
  • Analysts say part of the reason is that Pyongyang, the strongest argument for cooperation between Tokyo and Seoul, is seen to have receded as a threat

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
As tensions flare between Tokyo and Seoul, expectations of Washington stepping up to get the neighbours back on good terms are much lower than before. Photo: AP
John Power
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then South Korean president Park Geun-hye first met in 2014, more than a year after they had entered office, it wasn’t at the suggestion of either leader. It was the idea of Barack Obama, president at the time of their mutual ally the United States.
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At the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague that March, Obama brought together the two leaders, bitterly at odds over historical and territorial disputes, to discuss the common challenge of nuclear-armed North Korea, continuing efforts by successive US administrations to boost trilateral cooperation on regional security.

But as tensions flare once again between Tokyo and Seoul, the result of a dispute over Korean forced labourers that has rapidly spiralled into a burgeoning trade war, expectations of Washington stepping up to get the neighbours back on good terms are much lower than before.

How China can win a ‘trade war’ between Japan and South Korea

US President Donald Trump’s antipathy for traditional alliances, North Korea’s improved relations with the US and South Korea, and reluctance within US diplomatic circles to take sides among allies all foreshadow a hands-off approach from Washington, analysts said.
I don’t believe Trump really sees much value in these alliances
Brad Glosserman, Centre for Rule Making Strategies

“I don’t believe Trump really sees much value in these alliances, so I don’t think he’s prepared to spend any of his political capital getting them to work on these issues,” said Brad Glosserman, deputy director of the Centre for Rule Making Strategies at Tama University in Tokyo. “That requires an understanding of detail, nuance, and strategic interest that this president just doesn’t seem much interested in either acquiring or mastering.”

Washington’s foreign policy establishment has long dreamed of a three-way alliance between the US and treaty allies South Korea and Japan, both of which host key US military bases, to present a united front against the North and an increasingly assertive China.

In Tokyo and Seoul, however, a raft of outstanding historical and territorial issues, stemming from Japan’s colonisation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, have been constant roadblocks to closer cooperation.

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